Living in Jersey, you get used to the same question from friends in the UK: “So how do we actually get to you?” It sounds simple, but if you haven’t made the trip for a few years, the answer in 2026 looks quite different to what you might remember. Condor is gone, the airport timetable has shifted again, and everyone here has an opinion about it.
For most visitors, flying is still the way in. Jersey Airport (JER) is busy for an island our size, with around 26 flights a day across about 25 direct destinations in the peak summer sample this year. London remains the lifeline — Gatwick runs six to seven flights a day with easyJet and British Airways, and Heathrow runs another two to three a day with BA. You can be wheels-up at Gatwick and on the beach at St Brelade barely two hours later, door to door if the wind is with you. Luton, Manchester and Liverpool all have daily easyJet services, while Glasgow, Birmingham, Belfast, Edinburgh and Newcastle are served a few times a week.
What has really changed in the last 18 months is who flies where outside London. easyJet is still our biggest operator by a mile, now flying from eight UK airports after adding London Southend twice-weekly in March 2026. Loganair has quietly become Jersey’s second home carrier, building a proper base here with Southampton, Bristol, Exeter, Norwich and East Midlands, plus extra Bristol flights on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays this summer. Jet2 covers Leeds Bradford, Newcastle and East Midlands for the package crowd, and Aurigny still hops us over to Guernsey in 15 minutes, as well as a rather niche weekly to Durham Tees Valley.
Europe is where 2026 finally feels more hopeful. For years we’ve complained that you can get to Luton easier than to France, 14 miles away. This summer Loganair launched its first-ever French routes — Jersey to Paris Charles de Gaulle three times a week on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Jersey to Bordeaux from late June. Blue Islands is also back with up to three Paris flights a week from April. KLM’s Amsterdam service, which started weekly in April, went daily through July and August with onward connections to 160+ destinations. It makes a weekend in Jersey from the continent, or a Jersey escape to the continent, feel normal again.
Then there’s the sea. If you grew up here, ferries mean Condor, but that 60-year era ended in March 2025. Jersey now has a 20-year deal with Danish giant DFDS, while Guernsey chose Brittany Ferries. It was a messy split, and we’re still living with the consequences. DFDS runs three routes from St Helier: Stena Vinga to Portsmouth, the high-speed Levante Jet to Poole in season, and the high-speed Tarifa Jet to St Malo. Freight goes largely on the Caesarea Trader, which replaced the much-criticised MV Arrow earlier this year. On paper, the 2026 timetable is a big improvement on the rushed startup year. DFDS published a full-year schedule through to December, with over 730 departures between May and August alone across Poole, Portsmouth and St Malo, most UK sailings moved to more civilised 09:00 to 12:00 departures, and better day-trip timings to St Malo. They carried 181,000 passengers in their first year and say over 130,000 were already booked for 2026 by spring. A 15% early-booking offer helped, though headline one-way fares with a car are still sobering — around £145 to St Malo and £220 to Poole in peak season.
Ask islanders what they think, though, and you’ll get an earful. A major survey by Island Global Research in January 2026 — 722 Jersey residents polled — found only 10% were satisfied with the cost and reliability of sea travel. That’s down 14 points since 2019. Air fared a little better but not much: 23% satisfied with cost, 39% with reliability, both down sharply. The comments were familiar to anyone down the pub: ferries too slow, too expensive, inter-island links worse than ever, and not enough year-round flights to UK regional airports or Europe. Only one in five Jersey respondents had high confidence our lifeline routes are secure for the future.
